Percy Jackson and the Sons of Darkness
by sjdhsjhd
Summary: Percy is set to enjoy his senior years at Camp without any more worry of Kronos. But suddenly, a new group of enemies appear right under the nose of the gods, and it's up to Percy and his friends to stop them... again. PERCABETH! HUMOR! ACTION!
1. Zeus Rains on My Parade

**I'm terrible with Percabeth, and I don't enjoy writing it. So I have given' up on The PJO holiday story and Snow. I'll allow anyone who wants to finish it do so. Just PM for more info. Anyways this is a story I WON'T give up on and it will be awesome!!!**

**Zeus rains on my Parade**

My foot tapped anxiously on the floor of my mom's car. School had FINALLY gotten out two days ago, and we were swerving around the corner leading to Long Island, New York. AKA Camp Half-Blood.

I was feeling pretty great because when my school blew up this year it wasn't very bad!

It was science, and my teacher was gabbing on about plants and photosynthesis. I was busy doodling things like sharks and rabid worms eating my science teacher, when thunder rumbled outside. No one was really worried about it except me. When there was a lightning storm around me it normally meant Zeus was in the mood to blow things up. Sadly, he chose my school, and I was automatically blamed for mixing an explosive chemical.

So here I was in my mom's blue Camry swerving into camp. She stopped at the bottom of Half blood hill, and helped me get my suitcase out of the back.

"Okay, Percy." She said, trying not to cry, "I know you're a big boy now, and Kronos is long-gone, but I do not approve of anymore quests. Five is enough…"

"Actually Mom, it was four. One was more of a rescue mission…" I corrected, but she strangled me in one last hug.

"I don't care of you're on vacation! You will not leave Camp unless Chiron is leading a GROUP trip!!!" She smothered me in good-bye kisses, and sent me up the hill.

Annabeth and I had gotten off wrong after the battle of the Labyrinth, but we made up last year, as always, and were good friends again. So in turn, As soon as I passed Thalia's Pine, she raced up the hill to greet me.

"Percy!" She said, giving me a friendly hug. I returned the hug, and together we walked off to my cabin.

Cabin three was as lonely as ever. Tyson took a permanent home in Dad's palace, but Dad got him a special Shell-Phone so he could call me whenever he wanted. I only got a call every, like, two minutes!

I tossed my case gods knows where, and came back out with Annabeth.

"So, what has a seaweed brain such as you been up to?" She asked as I came out of my sea shell door. The nick name didn't bug me much anymore. It's sort of like a mole. At first you hate it, and you want to get rid of it, but soon it becomes a part of you, and it just sticks with you forever.

"The usual. Blowing up schools, and giving the UPS guy a hard time with Mrs. O'Leary." (A/N Is that it? My friend borrowed my copy of BOTL so I don't know…) Yup. I still had her. We kept her behind the apartment in an unused alley-way. She her favorite shield-Frisbee and her Spartan Warrior doll to accompany her. Not to mention her water dish (Which is a horse waterer you may find at a local farm…) and her pile of Iams kibble in the corner. I took her out to use the bathroom twice a day, and once a night. But you know, if you gotta' go… you gotta' go. It looked (And smelled) about as bad as a chicken coop. Only with scat bigger than you are and enough pee to fill a lake.

After a few hilarious stories about Mrs. O'Leary's on-going war with the UPS guy (Because no matter how high Paul made those walls…) and poop-scoop days, I made the mistake of asking _her _what _she's _been up to.

He eyes grew alight with one thousand memories.

"You wouldn't believe how much Mac & cheese little Tommy could eat…" she started. I toned out after 'Wouldn't believe'.

Finally, after about two million stories about her brothers, her family's new dog, a collie named Saige, and new architecture designs she'd been working on, I was completely zomibfied and half dead. All I did was inquire a few Yeah's and I know's every time there was a break in her words.

Eventually it was time for dinner. There, Chiron greeted me, and gave me the bead that he forgot to give me at the end of last year for my necklace. It was a bead with a picture of a sword and a poorly drawn decapitated head. The lunch tables applauded.

It was a pretty empty day. But I was back where I belonged,, my sixteenth birthday was gone, and it was time for me to sit back, relax, and enjoy my last years at camp half blood, without any sort of threat what-so-ever.

Or so I thought.


	2. Grover Makes a new Friend

**Grover Makes a New Friend**

Lunch was just getting over with. I made sure no one was looking, and I used my sleeve to wipe off the left-over tomato soup. I figured I would kill the time between now and dinner taking a whack at some dummies in the sword arena.

Chiron was just using the next couple weeks before all the campers got here for free-time, which was pretty relaxing.

I was near the entrance to the arena when Annabeth caught up to me.

"Hey, Percy. What are you doing?" She asked.

"Oh… just going to practice my sword fighting." I responded. She nodded.

"Well, what's the point? All the monsters are scared of you now. So technically you'rethe monster." She aid smiling.

"Because I'm clearly so scary…"

"Well, I bet Grover wants to say hi to us!" A buzzer went off in my head. I had completely forgotten about Grover!

"YEAH!" Suddenly I was excited to go see my old buddy. He was so busy restoring nature before the war last year that I barely got to see him! Without any thought going through my head (Then again, when is there thought in my head?), I grabbed Annabeth's hand, and started running towards the forest.

Once we got to the edge of the forest, Annabeth snatched her hand back. "Percy! I can lead myself ya' know…" she rubbed her hands as if I left some sort of strange disease on it. I immediately started growing red.

"Erm…sorry…" She giggled.

"It's okay. It's not your fault your head is full of kelp." I rolled my eyes, and together we ran into the forest in search of our friend.

***********************************************

We slowed to a walk eventually, and asked a tree nymph I she had seen him anywhere.

"Nope," Said the tree-Nymph named Mable (Not Maple),"I think he went off to Colorado to do something…"

"Oh…" I said sadly. I was really looking forward to seeing Grover. "Thanks anyways, Maple." I mumbled.

"MABLE!" She scowled.

"Oh…sorry again, Map-..Mable…"

It was only four, so we decided we might as well go say hi to Chiron, and ask him more about Grover.

The big house was…well… as big as ever, and Mr.D. was on the porch looking through his wine magazine. He was mumbling about how Californians shouldn't have the right to make wine.

"Hey, Mr. D. Is Chiron here?" Asked Annabeth as we trekked up the creaky, wooden steps of the entrance way. He looked up from his magazine.

"Why would I know? Do I look like his keeper?" he grumbled. "You can go check if you must."

Annabeth and I walked through the door, and instinctively found Chiron In his office in human form doing paper-work.

"Hi, Chiron!' Said Annabeth. He looked up.

"Ah, Annabeth! Looking for your friend Grover I'm guessing?"

"Yeah," I said, "Some tree-nymph named Maple said he was in Colorado…"

"Mable, I believe, is who you are talking about, I presume?"

"Gods…whatever!" I grumped. Chiron chuckled.

"Your friend Grover is back to his normal satyr duties recruiting half-bloods. He's in Delphi, Colorado (A/N that's not a real Colorado city.) tracking a little girl who seems powerful."  
"Like, big three powerful?" I asked curiously. He shook his head.

"Well, what's she like?" Annabeth followed.

"Dark hair, color-changing eyes, plays a LOT of instruments… Her name is Jamie. Grover expects Apollo, but we can't be completely positive…" I nodded. Great, just what we needed, more Apollo kids.

"Do you think it's okay if we Iris-message him? Annabeth asked, beating me to the question. As always.

"I'm sure he's free…" He fished a golden Drachma from a pencil mug on his desk, and flipped it over to Annabeth.

We went over to the edge of the ocean, and flipped-in the coin.

"Iris, oh goddess of the rainbow, please accept my noble offering." A rainbow shimmered in the water.

"Grover Underwood, Delphi, Colorado." The rainbow shimmered away, and instead showed a wet circle, revealing Grover by a tree. He jumped, and let out a little scared bleat when he noticed us. But his expression quickly changed to a wide grin.

"Pe-e-e-ercy! A-a-anabeth!" He bleated.

"Hey, G-man! How is the whole recruiting thing going?"

"Great! Jamie already expected these weird things kept happening to her were due to Greek Mythology! It made giving her 'the talk' a little easier."

"Well, when will you be here?" Annabeth asked.

"Our plane leaves in a few hours… I should be at camp with Jamie tomorrow morning!"

We talked for a while, until our Iris message expired, and went off to dinner.

It took me a few bites of taco to realize something.

Jamie was going to join us for Capture the Flag.

**That's the Last boring chapter. Next chapter is HUGE! So stay tuned.**


	3. We kickoff Capture the Flag With a Bang

**Bear with me, I know these chapters are boring and short, but capture the flag is ALWAYS fun!**

**We kick-off Capture the Flag**

I gave another rough pat-on-the-neck to BlackJack. _Oh yeah! That's the spot, boss!_ I laughed under my breath and started scratching on the spot. He whinnied in delight.

I leaned a little closer to his ear. "Don't go off and tell the others…" I fished out a few extra sugar cubes I managed to smuggle from lunch, and slid them to his mouth. He silently munched them, licking the roof of his mouth. I guess that was the only disadvantage to having horses read your mind I guess.

_Not fair! You gotta' share stuff like the, Jack!_

_Come on boss! We're starving!_

_Whoa! When did those wings get there?_

I did my best treating them all like a math teacher. Completely ignoring them. Screwing around with BlackJack and his gang of flyin' horses was a good way to kill time on days like these. Oranos must be seriously screwing with my head by making the hours until Grover and Jamie get here drag longer and longer.

I managed to find Annabeth by the archery range, totally alone.

"That's odd. Normally this is the place to be…" I said, startling her. She calmed down though.

"Yeah…I guess we aren't the only one expecting old friends today…"

She was right. It was the Saturday after the week school ended. It was the day most of the campers arrived, and the night for capture the flag.

I decided to pick up one of the bows, and do a bit of practice with a bow. I hit the plastic harpy, which was pretty good for me. Except for the fact that I was aiming for the target way off to the left.

After about an hour, Annabeth was on her back laughing at my poor archery skill. ADHD was a dangerous thing to have with archery. You know focusing on your target, then suddenly 'Hey look a rabbit…'

Another hour passed, and it was FINALLY time for Grover and Jamie to arrive.

Annabeth and I raced to the top of the hill, panting to a halt, and peering over the slope. Argus's van was just swerving around the corner. Almost as soon as he stopped, Travis Stoll popped out. He no longer lived with his twin Connor because Travis got a girlfriend and had moved in with her, while Connor still relied on his mom. They were near twenty now, but no matter how grown-up they were on the outside, they could never grow up on the inside.

Next, a few less noticeable campers filed out, followed by Selena (Oh joy…) and finally Grover and a girl.

The girl had dark brown hair that was back in a ponytail. She had a bright face, without noticeable freckles, and light brown eyes. I remembered Grover telling me about how often they changed colors though. She was wearing a denim jacket, and black jeans. She looked a little timid, but WAY less than any other new campers. She must be pretty confident in her skill.

Grover led the way over the boundary line, and waved to us. Annabeth walked over to greet them, but I was busy staring at the girl. Annabeth peered over at me, and narrowed her brows. "Percy!" She scolded, sounding a little annoyed, "Come on!" I snapped out of my trance, and went over to meet them.

**********************************************

It was directly after dinner, and the whole horde of half-bloods were settling around the main clearing to settle the teams. The atmosphere was prickling with excitement, especially that of the new campers.

I managed to find Jamie out of the crowd. She was biting her lower lip, hiding a smile. She was tapping her foot impatiently. She noticed me, and waved. I snapped my head back up to Annabeth, who was scowling at Jamie.

Chiron talked over the awkwardness I was picking up with my Percy-radar though, "As you all know, tonight is officially the first of two games of capture the flag this year." The campers roared with applause. "Now I leave this crowd in the hands of Ms. Annabeth Chase, and Clarrise Elway **(A/N I know that's not her real last name, and I HATE naming her after the best football player ever…)**

Annabeth unfolded a neat little college-ruled piece of paper, while Clarrise yanked out a big torn up sticky-note out of her pocket. Annabeth cleared her throat, and said "Today, Clarrise and I have successfully gotten' together to discu-.."

"Get on with it, brainy!" Shouted an Ares kid.

Annabeth scoffed. "Whatever. I have chosen Athena cabin, Hermes cabin, Poseidon cabin, Apollo cabin, and Dionysus cabin." She finished. The campers nodded their heads in acknowledgment.

"Well…" Started Clarrise, "I get…the rest." She said lazily, tossing her paper behind her. Chiron stepped back in front.

"All of you have thirty minutes to go get ready, and meet here again."


	4. We Enjoy Story Time With Jamie

**Sorry I haven't updates for a while. I've had finals exams at school and all… so… never mind, on with the story.**

**I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

We Enjoy Story Time With Jamie.

I felt strangely like a football player in a huddle as Annabeth went over the plan. She was intently staring in space, flying through every word in her plan twice, while the rest of stood there with dumb expressions on our faces.

Times like these caused my ADHD to kick in, so instead of listening, I was busy staring at Jamie again, who was adjusting her large armor. I guess that's a pretty good way to get used to the whole Greek fighting thing.

Once Annabeth finished, Beckendorf (Also in his last year, planning on marrying Selina in spring) said "Break!' In his big husky voice. That got a few chuckles. He could be easily mistakable for a large offensive line-man. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Just get out there!" With that, we separated into our positions. I just followed a large group of people, pretending to know what was going on. Unlucky for me though, Annabeth was leading that group, and she noticed me in the back.

"Percy? What are you doing here?"

Of course I said something totally smart like, "Uhh…" She rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, seaweed brain, do you listen to _anyone?_" I shook my head a little bit, growing a little red. Obviously Annabeth failed to notice the others smirking in the background.

"You're on defense! Get over there before the other team arrives!' She commanded. I was about to protest, but I held it in. Annabeth wasn't the type of person to argue with.

I huffed grumpily, and stomped back to where we hid our grey, owl-symboled flag, muttering the whole way. It seemed like Annabeth was sure being a pain in the butt lately.

I took my spot next some other kid, looked like he belonged to Apollo. He must have been listening to the plan, because he was in the right spot.

"Hey, man. Did you catch the plan? I was busy with something…" He peered over to me, as if he just noticed me. He frowned when he realized who it was. Yup, definitely Apollo.

"Well?!" I asked a little more forcefully. I was getting agitated.

He smirked, then in a sly voice, he said "Annabeth said she was sending a small front-line with a bunch of my sibs to shoot arrows to distract them, then she was sending a smaller-yet line on the left flank to attack. That would weaken their defense, and keep them on the look-out to the left. Then her team, the right side, would take the surprise attack, and capture the flag. She put most of the Hermes kids over there."

"Great…" I mumbled, "And we get to sit here and do nothing…"

As if on cue, the tiny Dionysus kid closer up by the flag shrieked with fright. I pin pointed were he was looking.

A big, and I mean HUGE, line of kids were charging right at us. Clarrise was in front, here spear looking very deadly.

Our defense readied there weapons, with full knowledge that we were heavily out numbered.

They splashed through the creek, howling like Indians, and laughed greedily as we took a few cautious steps back. Back in the distance, I could hear our team tearing away with their flag. Obviously Clarrise was too stupid to set up a defense to support the offense. No wonder they looked so big…

All Hades broke loose we clashed. I targeted Clarrise shoving through the crowd, stampeding towards our flag. I dodged an arrow zooming by, and intercepted Clarrise. _Oh, Zeus! _I prayed, _Please say Annabeth got the flag!_

I shoulder-butted Clarrise to get her attention. "Oh boy. I getta' screw up, Jackson this time!" A malicious grin spread across her face, and I could hear the electricity buzzing on her spear. Instinctively, I touched my magical wrist-watch, revealing a large shield, deflecting the mighty blow Clarrise was about to put on me. But the force ricocheted off, and knocked us both to our feet.

In the distance, I saw our group, scarred just a little, sprinting towards the border with the red flag. Jamie in the lead.

I was just about to yelp with victory, but some kid swooped above me, and snatched the flag.

With a malevolent laugh, the girl sped around, and headed toward her own border. Suddenly, my team seemed _that_ much further away from the border.

Clarrise barked an order to the fighting crowd, and half of the red-teamers retreated to their own border in an attempt to stop our group. I hauled after them.

All I could hear, really, was the panting of my own breath, when suddenly, SLAM! ZZZAAAAPPP!!!!!!!

I let out a cry of pain, and fell to the ground. Something came up, and ore whatever hit me out of my back. I feebly turned onto my hurt back to meet Clarisse's evil gaze, looking down at me like a piece of prey.

Her spear buzzed louder, as she readied to stick it into my weak stomach and pretty much kill me.

"You can't kill me!" I choked out, "That's WAY out of the rule book!" She laughed harder in response.

"Chiron won't allow this…" She stopped laughing.

"It's not like I can't kick you into the lake and let you well-up like a sponge, kelp-face…"  
I yipped, and shuddered, bracing for impact. But all of the sudden, the Earth fell into slow-motion. The spear head zapped angrily as it speed-rocketed towards me. I clenched my fist, and glanced at the border. Annabeth was about ten yards from crossing. Jamie was already across, fending the opposing team's party. I recalled thinking about how brave Jamie was.

Annabeth looked right at me, ready to die, but looked right back at the battle. No hesitation. I flashed back over to Jamie. All of this was going by in a matter of milliseconds.

Too sudden to count for, the battle stopped. Jamie, glowed a brilliant light, her eyes were seemingly replaced by a pair of head lights. She dropped her sword, and fell to the ground.

A misty green glow seeped out of the trees, and a glowing Jamie was the only thing visible. Clarrise stopped her sword to look at what was going on.

If the whole thing wasn't freaky enough, Jamie's voice spoke clearly, but it was intertwined by an unmistakable rasping voice. I rose into a painful sitting position, as her words rang through the clearing.

"_Three will travel north to the land of ice,_

_To offset direction and find the land of rice._

_The valley of the sun will lead the way To the un-heard of land that's behind a single day_

_The sun will fail, in the time of need_

_And will lead to a darker seed_

_Olympus will fall when love conquers all_

_When the real threat is just across the hall."_

The crowd of on-lookers were dead silent, except for the gang of laughing Hermes kids, who carried the red flag to our border.

"DADDY!" Jamie screamed as she awoke from her glowing trance. The green mist had disappeared, and Jamie was in an up-right position.

Wait, Daddy?

**IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!!:**

**I have created a Percy Jackson fansite! It's pretty cheap, because I made it for free, ands in a matter of an hour, but here's the link to go look at it!!!**

**www dot olympiccrown dot webs dot com(Without spaces… and actually put the dots in…)**


	5. Annabeth Plays Hide and Go Seek

**I'm going boarding this weekend, so I'll update my story, now!**

**Annabeth Plays Hide and Go Seek. **

Without hesitation, Chiron stopped the game. After all, thanks to Travis and Connor, we won the game. It wasn't like most victories though. No one was rubbing the victory in the Ares camper's faces. No one cheering, and Jamie's lower lip was trembling.

I was still taken aback by the whole "DADDY!" thing. It was pretty obvious her heritage was a lot like Apollo's, but she was never exactly claimed. Most half-bloods didn't even know who their parents were.

There were a lot of thoughts buzzing through my head, like a million angry wasps. Of course there was the whole Jamie issue on hand, but the unexpected prophecy was surely leading somewhere. And, Annabeth. Why didn't she come help me when Clarrise wanted to kill me? I'm not the type of guy to freak out if my friends (All… three of them.) didn't call me back, or if so-and-so's girlfriend was going to break up with him. But when someone was about to kill you, and someone, who was LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU, leaves you there, that's something big.

In the rat-race to the Big-House, though, Annabeth was nowhere to be seen. I did my best to ignore it, and continued on to the Big House.

***

There was no time to pack out the fancy fold-up tables, and chip bowls, so we all sat Indian style in the middle of the floor. There was excited chatter everywhere. I was left out of the picture. I'd been on numerous quests, and pretty much saved the world. In a way you could say I was retired. Obviously I'd done a pretty good job at making all of my adventures sound like a ton of fun. All of the newer cabin-leaders were pretty much jumping up and down.

Suddenly, Chiron trotted into the room. We all shut our traps, and watched him make his way to the front.

He stood totally still at the front. The only sign of life was his furrowing brow. Finally, he spoke.

"I'm sure we all heard what Jamie said…" He trailed. "But I'm not sure whether it was from the gods, or too many sodas." We all nodded.

"The little brat was faking the whole thing, I swear to myself." Said Dionysus from somewhere in the back. Chiron glared at him.

"I'm sure we all know what this calls for…" The crowd roared. It seemed like we could have drowned out a football-stadium easily.

"Grr… SHUT UP!" Snapped Mr. D. We all quieted down, even though I wasn't loud in the first place.

Dionysus stepped out from the shade. "Chiron! You're being a fool!" Chiron was about to open his mouth in protest, but Dionysus spoke back up. "You're getting much too quest-happy! Every little thing is "Ooh… we need a quest"!"

"Dionysus!" Snapped Chiron, "There is a sudden danger, and a new enemy, and you expect a camp full of young heroes to ignore it!?"

"I'm saying you shouldn't care! There isn't a new enemy, and there won't be for years to come!"

"So what if I were to accuse you!?" Chiron challenged. Mr. D. was about to talk, but bit it back. He walked away grumbling.

"All right." Chiron turned back to us, speaking a little more sharply. "We need to settle a quest immediately. Any volunteers?" Those were the magic words. All of the cabin-leaders except for me leaped to their feet.

I looked around the chaos, trying to figure out where Annabeth had disappeared, but she was still nowhere to be seen. Clarisse shoved her way to the front of the crowd. The Hephaestus leader, Beckendorf, had to hold back the Apollo leader from tackling Clarisse. That fight would have gotten' ugly.

"Clearly a smart horse like you wouldn't be willing to give a rookie such an important quest?" She spoke smoothly. Chiron immediately caught on to her tricks though. She definitely wasn't a Hermes kid.

"You're absolutely right, Clarrissa." He said, using her full name. She beamed. "That is why I'm choosing Demi from Demeter to lead this quest!" The crowd's noise died away instantly. Demi came a year after me, and was gunned right up to cabin leader. She hopped giddily up and down.

She didn't even wait for Chiron to grant her permission to do anything, either.

"I choose my brother, Matthew, and my bestest friend in the whole wide world! Cami from Athena!" The group was already leaving out the door, grumbling to their friends about how bad a disappointment this was. Demi stayed behind with Chiron, and I let out a giant sigh of relief. One less quest for me to worry about.

*********

Bright sunlight luminated the floating dust particles, and made all of the decorative sea shells glow. It was going to take more than that to wake me up, though. Today, in my opinion, was a great day to be lazy. Chiron had suspended cabin-activities for the day, due to quest preparations.

I stuffed my blue pillow over my face. I kept my ears open, though. Normally on days like these, Annabeth would be up bright and early, getting me up for breakfast. Then realizations about last night came flooding over me.

The game, the quest… the Jamie-prophecy.

And, worst of all, the disappearance of Annabeth.

I let my judgment get the best of me, and I rolled out of bed.

Wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I slipped on a pair of random jeans, and a shirt that didn't have some sort of stain on it.

My trip to the lunch-hall was…different. The Dryads and Nyads weren't singing, there was no sound of tree-nymphs chasing down wild animals. No light rustle of swaying water as a canoe brushed along the edge of the lake, no laughing from the kids. I looked around. It was pretty empty. There was a mass of thunderheads over Manhattan, but they never made through to Camp Half Blood.

I shrugged it away, and entered the cafeteria.

From there I got a pretty good view of the Big House. Suddenly, I was hit by a ferocious wave of alarm. There was a giant group of campers huddled around a circle. I could hear faint sniffling.

Instantly, I sprinted over to the crowd, and maneuvered my way to the front.

"What's going on?" I demanded. A little girl who's eyes were swept with tears looked up at me.

"Demi is dead."


	6. I Immediately Take the Blame

**I Immediately Take the Blame**

It took me a minute to register what was happening. The quest leader was dead, on the day of her own quest. Now what? We were just going to let Olympus die? Just then, something totally unexpected happened.

"You just couldn't keep the spotlight off of you, huh Jackson?" Snickered Clarisse. I could almost hear all of the heads in the circle turn to look at me. I fumbled around my head for the right words.

"What?!" I muttered, "No!" She didn't buy it though.

"You idiot! You thought Chiron could just give you another shot at fame by sending you on _another _quest!" Clarisse shot hotly at me. I fumed.

"How do we know you're not trying to frame me?" I spat. "Go chase a doughnut!" Oops. She started growing red. I could swear there was steam coming out of her ears.

"That's the last straw, punk!" She stomped over to me, shaking the whole forest in her rage. If it wasn't for Chiron reaching over and grabbing her, I would have been a pancake by now.

Suddenly, Mr. D. stepped through the crowd of campers.

"Clarisse is right." He said. The crowd silenced, and looked up at the grumpy god. "The little twerp killed her with his little pen right when she finished speaking to Chiron!" His drunken eyes and brutal face were red with fury.

"Do you have any proof!?" I protested. He smiled. Normally when you pictured a god, you think of big muscles, an angel-carved face, and glowing teeth, right? That's not including Dionysus. His teeth were tinted yellow from his alcohol consumption all those years ago. But there he stood, smiling at me.

"Actually, I do!" He fished around in his sweat pants for something, and reeled up a blue ballpoint pen. I gasped, and lunged for my pocket, where I always kept _Anaklusomos, _my lethal pen-sword. Weapons weren't allowed in camp, without permission, anyways, but I ignored those rules completely, and flipped the cap off of my sword. A shining celestial bronze, ancient Greek-style sword slid out.

"Here's my sword right here!"I spat. Dionysus froze. Completely confused. He flicked off the cap of the pen in his palm. An identical blade unsheathed.

That's when Chiron stepped in.

"Dionysus!" Snapped Chiron. "This is inappropriate behavior for a god!" There was a large awkward silence, now.

Mr. D. Grumbled and trekked off again. That was weird. Where did that sword come from? Whose was it? And why was it the same?

"As for you, Perseus Jackson," said Chiron strictly, "I fear we have no choice but to say that _you_ are the murder." The crowd broke out in rapid whispers. My lower lip was trembling. I was turning a thousand shades of pink and purple. I could faintly feel my legs shaking. I looked up at Chiron, readying to protest, but he winked at me. All he did was wink.

****

It turned out to be a horrible day. I would have rather been tossed into solitary confinement just so I didn't have to go through half of the kids in camp calling me a traitor. I actually preferred the time of day when I had to go do Lake clean-up patrol with the harpies, and scrub dishes after meals. It kept me away from the rest of them.

Of course, I could always rely on one person to side with me even if I was in a murder situation. "It's okay, Percy! I believe." Grover would say with a warm smile. But thanks to our empathy link, I got some disturbing pictures of me beating down Cami in the dark of night.

"Yeah…thanks so much, G-man…"

Days crawled by. It only took a week to get everyone in camp, except for Grover, on my bad-side. Juniper was too scared too even visit me. When I was younger, I always thought that the criminals had the most fun in the movies. Now I felt bad for them.

Chiron was pretty good support. He'd been around longer, and he knew that there might be some sort of crazy, ancient Greek cloning potion. He gave me easy chores. Like cleaning his desk, and scrubbing the latrines.

There was good news, though. Annabeth had returned. I would have figured that all of her siblings would have freaked when they found out she was missing, but instead, they went on like nothing ever happened. I could tell they were all keeping a secret. Kind of like at school, when your friend disappears every lunch, and talks with a group of kids, then never lets you in on things. She visited once, but had to go "train with Hermes cabin" when I asked her what she was up to.

Even natural things got weird. Summer evenings always lasted long, but suddenly they were lasting 'til two in the morning, and getting bright at four AM.

Finally, in late June, I got a break. Sort of.

**Sorry, I know it's boring. Next chapter answers a lot of questions, but don't expect me to be updating. I'm in the middle of moving, and I might not get good computer access for a while!**


	7. Apollo Changes A Lightbulb

**I know, it's a little rushed, but it's almost quest time! Here's the newest chapter! Also, I'm sorry I haven't updated in Forever. It's just that I haven't gotten the motivation to update anymore because of all the PJO fandom pollution. I mean…come on people! I'm a pretty terrible writer, but at least my stories are original. Anyways, if you like the story, give me some motivation! And I didn't get a beta this time – but I did skim over it really quickly.**

**Apollo Changes a Light Bulb **

Something was up. I'm not sure what tipped me, though. It might be the fact that night time was working some serious overtime hours, and it was still dark at 10 in the morning.

I was walking back from the stables to change my shirt (Porkpie had an accident) at 9 or 10 in the morning, and the sun was just now beginning to dawn. I couldn't say it surprised me. I was like this almost every day, and none of the campers seemed to mind it anymore.

I was coming past Athena cabin, when Annabeth barreled out, and greeted me.

"Hey, Percy." She said straightly. I could tell by the look in her eyes that something was bothering.

"Hey. Uh… you're smart," I joked, "what's up with the sun? Some god Apollo turned out to be…" I braced myself for a ray of light to shine in my eyes, but it never came. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I highly doubt it has anything to do with the gods. It's probably the Earth taking a slight detour off of its orbit, and it's causing the sun to spas out on us."

Of course, I didn't understand a word of that, so I just said, "Uh-huh." So I wouldn't sound like an idiot.

After I put on a fresh orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, Annabeth and I strolled around the lake to kill time, discussing normal things like the weather, good movies, any recent monster attacks.

Eventually, we passed by Zephyros Creek beach, where the creek that ran through the forest met the ocean. A while back, Annabeth explained how the soot that the creek carried mixed itself with the sand, making it a darker color, and really soft. The second we came into their line of sight, a group of Demeter kids glared, stood up, and hurried away. It's amazing what one little supposed 'murder' could do to your social status. I guess it was a good way to scare away kids.

We took a seat, and looked at the ocean. The sun was so dim; it made the water seem grey, like Annabeth's eyes. The second I thought that, I looked over at her.

She had her legs sprawled out, and she was eyeing the water like a tool. It was almost like she was imagining a way to use it against someone.

As if she felt me looking at her, she turned her head to me. Her blonde hair really stuck out in the dimness. "What?" She asked.

I snapped back to reality and tried to register what I should answer. "Uh…nothing."

She sighed and looked away. I followed her example.

"You know, Percy, there's something I should tell you." That caught my attention. "The other-… When I was… uh… You know when I was-"

She was suddenly interrupted though. What little light there was, suddenly disappeared.

I frantically looked to the sky. There were no clouds in sight, the ocean was suddenly unchained, and waves two times your size were crashing in the distance. If only I could see them…

I could feel Annabeth's breath rate shoot up, and a bunch of screaming choused in the distance behind us. A blow horn sounded.

I leaped to my feet, grabbing Annabeth's hand. "Come on!" In my life, when stuff like this happens, it normally isn't good.

We sprinted to the clearing, where a group of worried campers were huddled around Chiron and Mr. D. I could barely make out the shape of them.

"Children, CHILDREN, CHILDREN!!!" Boomed Chiron. The campers automatically shut up.

"As you can tell…" He stated impatiently, "Our sun has disappeared somehow. It's most likely just a solar eclipse that our meteorologists hadn't expected…" At the phrase 'hadn't expected' the campers started whispering to each other frantically.

"Cam-…" Started Chiron, but Mr. D. cut in.

"The owner of the next mouth that moves will be turned into a strawberry!" That got us to be quiet.

"Ah… thank you Mr. D. We know that-"

As if on cue, the darkness illuminated, and the dim sunshine was alight in the sky again. The atmosphere seemed a lot less tense.

At Chiron's word, the group dispersed. It looked like the Apollo kids were recently in a train wreck. The sun just, disappearing like that, just about gave them a heart attack.

I wasn't totally convinced, though. I took off after Chiron. I needed to get a few things straight before I went on.

When I caught up to him on the steps of the Big House, he had a straight look on his face. That was his version of a worried look.

"Chiron?" I asked innocently.

"Yes, child?"

"The s-… Apollo doesn't actually have eclipses, does he?" I still wasn't used to the fact that the sun was really a big Maseratti Spyder.

"Not exactly." He responded. Thanks for the straight answers.

"So… what really happened? I need to know!"

Chiron shrugged. "Lord Apollo was probably yielded by an asteroid, and drove around the moon. Therefore blocking the light."

I thought for a moment. Chiron was about to go back inside, but I stopped him mid-clop.

"One more question. Not about the sun though…" There was a long pause.

"I'm all ears, boy."

"The quest. We're just going to forget about it?"

Chiron shook his head. "We'll see." And he closed the door.

*********

After lunch, I tracked down Annabeth at the archery range.

"So what were you saying before the sun disappeared?" I asked. She put down her bow, and kept a straight face.

"It was…nothing. Just forget about it." Great. All the more reason to wonder what it was.

"Annabeth, come on! How many secrets do you plan on keeping from me?!" She was taken aback.

"None! Percy, we tell each other everything!" I balled up my fists.

"Where were you those 3 days you were gone?! What were you planning on telling me?!"

"Ugh… Percy! I was never gone! I was right here in camp!" I could tell she was lying, just because of the hurt look in her eyes.

"Tell me the truth!" I demanded.

"PERCY! I…" There was suddenly a roll of thunder, and a crashing wave off of the beach. Someone switched the light 'off'. Again.

Chiron stormed out of the Big House, in complete horse form. I could feel through the darkness Annabeth glaring at me, and she ran off. I trudged over to the podium, where kids were gathering.

Chiron was furious. And I can't say I blamed him, either.

"Children! The time has come! We need a quest!"


End file.
